Armed men kidnapped 14 people — including a bride, 10 of her bridesmaids, and a baby — during an overnight raid in northeastern Nigeria, marking yet another mass abduction in a country increasingly overwhelmed by insecurity.
The attack occurred between Saturday night and early Sunday morning in Chacho village, Sokoto State. Residents told AFP that the victims were taken from a home in the Zango neighbourhood, where the bride and her bridesmaids had gathered for the traditional first night of married life.
“Bandits stormed our village last night and kidnapped 14 persons, including a bride and 10 bridesmaids,” resident Aliyu Abdullahi said. He added that a baby, the child’s mother, and another woman were also abducted.
Nigeria has been rocked in recent weeks by a surge of abductions, with hundreds taken across multiple states. The country continues to wrestle with the dual threat of jihadist groups — including Boko Haram — and heavily armed criminal gangs known locally as “bandits,” who carry out kidnappings for ransom, terrorize villages, and loot homes.
The situation has escalated to the point that President Bola Tinubu declared a nationwide emergency on Wednesday. International pressure has also mounted, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening possible military intervention over what he calls widespread attacks on Christians by radical Islamists.
For residents of Chacho, the latest abduction is a painful repeat of a similar attack just a month earlier. Abdullahi said the community paid ransom to free 13 villagers kidnapped in October. “Now, we are faced with the same situation,” he said.
A Nigerian intelligence report seen by AFP confirmed Sunday’s attack and noted a sharp increase in bandit operations in Sokoto in November — the highest number recorded in the past year.
The intelligence assessment suggested that peace deals struck in neighboring states may have inadvertently allowed bandit groups to regroup and relocate. As military pressure decreases in those regions, the gangs appear to be moving into areas with weaker security presence, such as Sokoto, resulting in more mass kidnap-for-ransom incidents.
Security experts have long criticized such deals, arguing that they give criminal groups time and space to entrench themselves while continuing to terrorize civilians elsewhere.
Nigeria has struggled with widespread kidnapping since Boko Haram’s notorious abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in 2014 — an event that drew global outrage. While jihadist activity remains strongest in the northeast, bandit gangs have expanded violence throughout the northwest and central regions, leaving rural communities devastated and fearful.
The latest kidnapping in Chacho underscores the worsening insecurity confronting Africa’s most populous country, as families wait anxiously for news of their abducted loved ones.
